Awning-support.



F, W. BURCH.

AWNING SUPPORT.

,APPLICATION-HLED NOV. 5. 19M.

1,218,591. Patented Ma r. 6-, 1917.

2 SHEETS-SHEET I.

WITNESSES:

INVENTOR F. w. BURCH.

AWNING SUPPORT.

APPLICATION FILED Nov. ,5. I914.

1,21 8.591 Y Patented Mar- 6, 1917.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 2- m: won/us P575575 :0., Puamuma, wuummon. 0 c4 @FFTCE FREDERICK W. BURCH, 0F PUEBLO, COLORADO.

AWN INGr-SUPPOBT.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Mar. 6, 1917.

Application filed. November 5, 1914. Serial No. 870,419.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, FnnonRIoK W. Boron, a citizen of the United States,and a resident of Pueblo, in the county of Pueblo and State of Colorado have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in Awning- Supports, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description.

My invention is an improvement in awning supports and relates in particular to extensible and collapsible arms adapted to be secured at one end to a building and to carry at their other or outer ends an awning pole, the arms being constructed to extend or contract as the awning is unwound or wound on another pole mounted on a buildmg.

The principal object of the present invention is to so construct said arms that they will act positively to extend and carry the free awning pole outward as soon as tension may be released on the awning; and to do this without the interposition of springs or the like and without manual aid from the person operating the awning. Another object of the invention is to so form said arms that they will automatically lock in fully extended position and permit of the awning being made taut by rerolling; thus bracing the awning against swaying in the wind and also holding the awning clear of the arms and preventing abrasion of the awning fabric by said arms-and yet that the arms will break automatically on an increase in tension being placed on the awning by further rcrolling action. Further and more detailed objects and advantages of my invention will later appear in the specification and be pointed out in the appended claims.

In the two sheets of drawings accompanying this application and forming a part hereof,

Figure 1 is a side elevation showing the awning supporting arm attached to a building and in extended position, the awning being conventionally illustrated;

Fig. 2 is a plan View of the arm shown in Fig. 1, a portion of the outer links being broken away to shorten the figure;

Fig. 3 is a similar view in retracted or collapsed position;

Fig. 4 is a perspective of a pair of hinges such as are employed in making the first elbow joint of the arms;

Fig. 5 is a perspectlve of the hinges used in attaching the arms to the supporting bracket; and

Fig. 6 is a perspective view of the bracket employed in securing the arms to the building.

Referring to the drawings, 7 indicates the store front or other structure to which the awning is to be attached'and 8 a crank for turning the bevel gear driven rods 9 through which another bevel gear (not shown) is ac tuated to rotate the roller 10 on which the awning 11 is wound. The awning supporting arms A, of which any suitable number may be employed though only one has been shown in the drawings, are carried by brackets 12 securely mounted on the building 7, the brackets 12 being adapted to be secured to the prism bar'of that type of front. The brackets 12 carry serrated attaching lugs 13, preferably formed integrally therewith by casting, and the hinge members 14 are bolted to the lugs 13 by bolts passing through the bolt holes 15 in the lugs 13 and the slotted openings 16 in the hinge members 14. Serrated lugs 17, shown in dotted lines in Fig. 5, on the backs of the hinge members 14 cooperate with the serrated faces of the attaching lugs 13 and firmly hold the hinge members 14 in position--which on account of the slotted openings 16, may be adjusted to suit the inclination which it is desired to give the awning. The hinge member 18 is designed to besecured to the member 14 by means of the bolt 19 passing through the bolt holes 20 in the eyes of the leaf 14 and the slotted openings 21 in the eye of the member 18. The upper hinge eye 22 carries on its upper surface a roller 23 and the lower hinge eye 24 has a roller 25 on its lower surface. The roller 23 is so placed as to run against the inner face 26 of the lip 27 projecting below the plane of the lower face of the hinge eye 28 and the roller 25 is so situated as to run on the outer edge 29 of the eye 30, a notch 31 being provided in the path of the roller 25 for a purpose later to be described. A lug 32is provided on the eye 24' in position toengagethe rear of the hinge member 14 when the arms are extended and the lug 33 on the lower face of the eye 24 engages the thickened portion 34 of the eye 30 at the same time, the functions of these parts being more fully described later.

As will be clear from an inspection of the. drawings, there are two sets of hinges connected to each bracket 12 and the arm members X and Y, which cross at Z and are elbow jointed at M and N, together constitute the arm A which is-a lazy tong swinging in a plane only slightly inclined to the horizontal. 'In the preferred embodiment of my invention shown in the drawings the members X and Y are each composed of upper and lower strips as far as the elbow joint N, one of the strips of each member being bent in its vertical plane,-asshown in Fig. 1, to enable the strips to pass at Z in the same verticalplane'and to be jointed by av pin which enters eyes riveted to each of the strips. I prefer to form the last links of the lazy tongs, as clearly shown in Fig. 1, of single strips S which are preferably bent to turn upwardly to give a larger angle between the awning 11 and the arms A when the awning is taut; and I also prefer to bendthem to a. horizontal position as shownfor ease in attachment to the plate 36 which carries the awning pole 87. This plate 36, which is shown in slightly exaggerated scale in Figs. 2 and 8, is preferably T-shaped and is provided with screw holes for attachment to the awning carrying pole 37 and with other holes through which the pivots for attaching it to the outer links of the arms A pass.

The hinges used at the joint N are simply straps such as shown in Fig. 1; butthose employed for the joint M, shown in detail in Fig. 1, are, in additiomprovided with means for adjustably controlling the amount of swing allowed during the extension movement of the arms. These means preferably consist of lugs 38 formed on one set of hinge eyes and set screws 39 mounted on the other set of eyes, the set screws being in position to engage the lugs 38 and to stop the'turning of the hinges at any desired point. r

Operation.

Assuming the parts to be in the position shown in Fig. 8, the crank 8 is turned to unroll the awning and, on account of the inclination (slight as it is) given to the arms A and the weight of the awning pole 37 and the awning, the lazy tongs will readily open extendedposition; audit is to obviate this If, however, the I objection to sucha construction that I have devised the peculiar hinge shown in detail in Fig. 5. In this hinge the rollers 25 and 28 travelon the surfaces 29 and 26 respectively and, during the first part of the movement of extension, reduce the friction 1nc1- dent to the turning action. Vhen the roller 25' has reached the edge of the notch 31 the normal tendency. of. the lazy tongs to open is about exhausted and additional force to complete the lllOVGlllGIltlIlllSt be provided. In my device this is provided by virtue of the roller 25 falling into the. notch 31, this outwardje'rk being permitted by the fact that the connection to the axial pin 19 of the hinge member 18 is through the slotted openings 21 and that the surface 26 is farther removed from the bolt hole 20 as the hinge approaches alinement than when it is turned as in Fig. 3. The final impetus given the device by the roller;25 falling into thenotch 3]. as described-is suflicient to fully extend the lazy tongs to a position substantially such as that shown in Fig. 2, wherein they are locked in extended position. In the preferred adjustment of my device the joints N never pass beyond the center linesv of the arm members but the joints 1% are allowed to slightly pass the;

center lines of the members, the extent to which they may pass being conveniently-and accurately governed by manipulation .of the set screw 39. When the arms thus adjusted have been fully extended the awning 11 may be made taut by rerolling on the roller 10; this will give sufficient rigidity to the structure and will cause the awning to fully clear the supporting arms, and, unless the reverse winding of the roller 1.0 be carried too far, will not break the arms. WVhen it is desired to raise the awning the crank 8 is turned farther to place still more tension on the arms. This will move the joints N outward and cause the joints M to spring out and the arms A to collapse and return to the position of Fig. 3-the notch 31 not being of smficient depth to retain the roller against any pronounced tendency to roll out.

As previously described, the set screws 39 may be employed to govern the locking and breaking of the arms, the parts being adjusted so that this action will take place at any desired tension. I prefer to make this adjustment such that an appreciable amount of tension may be placed on the awning members 14 when the arms are in extended position. The object of the lugs 33 and faces 34 is to prevent the arm A swinging in a vertical plane around the pin 19 when the arm is in extended position. In order to so swing the lower face of the hinge eye 24 would have to pass over the upper surface of the hinge eye 30; but with the lugs 33 and the faces 34 in position as described, such movement is impossible.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent is 1. An awning support comprising a set of lazy tongs having means at the outer end for supporting an awning, and hinges connecting the parts of said support and the support to a. building, one of said hinges being constructed to impart a sudden im pulse to said support at a predetermined point in the opening thereof.

2. An awning support comprising a set of lazy tongs having means at the outer end for supporting an awning, and hinges for connecting the parts of said support and the support to a building, one of said hinges being constructed to permit of a slight dropping of said tongs as they approach a fully extended position.

3. An awning support comprising a set of lazy tongs having means at the outer end for supporting an awning, and hinges for connecting the parts of said support and the support to a building, the set of hinges between the support and the building being provided with means for allowing the axes of said hinges to assume a position more inclined to the vertical as the tongs approach a fully extended position.

4. An awning support comprising a set of lazy tongs having means at the outer end for supporting an awning, and hinges for connecting the parts of the support, one of the sets of said hinges having adjustable means for controlling the degree of turning thereof.

5. An awning support comprising a pair of crossed elements, a pair of links connected to said crossed elements and to a bracket, a pair of links connected to the other end of said crossed elements and to pole holding means, hinges interposed between said crossed elements and both said pairs of links and between said first mentioned links and said bracket, and adjustable means permitting one of the pairs of hinges connecting the crossed elements to the links to pass alinement but regulating the amount which said hinges may pass such alinement.

6. An awning support comprising folding sections and hinges for connecting the sections of said support and the support to a building, one of said hinges comprising a 5 pair of leaves, a pair of eyes on each leaf, a pin passing through circular openings in the eyes of one leaf and through slotted openings in the eyes of the other leaf, guides for said leaves holding their axes substantially parallel through a portion of their travel, said guides and slotted connection being so constructed and proportioned as to permit one of said leaves to increase the inclination of its axis to the vertical as the leaves approach alinement.

7. An awning support comprising folding sections and hinges for connecting the sections of said support and the support to a building, one of said'hinges comprising a pair of leaves, a pair of eyes on each leaf, apin passing through circular openings in the eyes of one leaf and through slotted openings in the eyes of the other leaf, guides for said leaves holding their axes substantially parallel through a portion of their travel, said guides and said slotted connection being so constructed and proportioned as to permit one of said leaves to increase the inclination of its axis to the vertical as the leaves approach alinement, and means coming into operation when the leaves are in alinement to prevent oscillation in a vertical plane of either leaf about said pin.

8. An awning support comprising folding sections and hinges for connecting the sections of said support and the support to a building, one of said hinges being constructed to impart a sudden impulse to said support at a predetermined point in the open ing thereof.

9. An awning support comprising folding sections having means at the outer end for supporting an awning, and hinges for con necting the sections of said support and the support to a building, the hinge between the support and the building being provided with means for allowing the axis thereof to assume a position more inclined to the vertical as the support approaches a fully extended position.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto affixed my signature in the presence of two witnesses. V I

FREDERICK W. BURCH. Witnesses:

GEORGE TELFER,

W. F. MoOLARY.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents, Washington, D. G. 

